Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in developing more productive strains of wheat and working to ensure their adoption around the world. During a recent phone interview with science writer Eric Berger, the 94-year-old distinguished professor at Texas A&M University said there are no simple solutions to the current crunch in food prices.

Q: Are you surprised at the price increases in wheat, corn, rice and other basic foodstuffs, some of which have tripled in just a few years?

A: I'm not surprised. The energy problem and the food problem are tangled up together. Many of the things that go into our food production system, like fuel for tractors and machines, and for fertilizer, have energy costs. Then there's the transport system for delivering goods. In addition, there may be speculation also. It's hard to isolate all of these factors. One change in government policy won't rectify all of these interacting complications.

Q: Do you worry about food riots around the world if prices continue to rise?

A: This is going on already in a few of the hardest pressed countries. Hunger is a pretty great force, especially if a country has seen things getting better and now it's going in another direction. People don't want to lose this progress, so they react in strikes and civic disorders of various kinds.

Q: Give me an example of a country that's made progress in its food supply.

A: India became self-sufficient in basic foods in the middle 1980s. Their production of basic cereal grains went from less than 11 million tons in 1965 to 75 million tons at the turn of the century. Today, they're eating more meat than they ever ate before. And meat requires more grain to feed animals. Now, with the increased price of food, some people are going to be pushed back into a shortage of food.

Q: Are there solutions, like those you helped develop decades ago to feed the world, for our food problems today?

A: Oh, sure. There's been continuing progress, and there's still great potential for food production. Not only in the developing nations but back home as well, in the world's biggest food exporter. But it's not just production. You have to have processing plants and storage. And you have to have transportation to move a surplus where there's a demand.

Q: So, we're talking about more than just growing more crops with a larger yield?

A: If you're able to increase production, but you can't distribute it, you have a disaster. For example, in Ethiopia about four or five years ago, there was an excellent crop of corn in the highlands. Down in the lowlands, there was an extreme shortage, bordering on famine. There was no transport service to move the grains from a surplus to a shortage, so people starved.

Q: How is food science improving the production of food?

A: The research projects are continuing, and improvements are being made. Genetically modified organisms are a big step in that direction, but there's a lot of confusion in that. Some people fear genetic modification, which is not very sound, because we've been genetically modifying plants and animals for a long time. Long before we called it science, people were selecting the best breeds.

Q: Has a fear of genetically modified food exacerbated the world food supply problem?

A: I think so. A good example is the Bt gene, which can be incorporated into cotton to reduce the number of applications of insecticides greatly. In corn, that same gene controls certain insects and cuts down the amount of insecticide needed. But people say, 'OK, if that's incorporated, it's not permitting insects to multiply, so it must be deleterious for humans, too.' But this isn't necessarily so. A large percentage of U.S. corn has the Bt gene in it to control certain pests, and it's been so for more than a decade. There's no good evidence it's done any harm. This technology has brought major economic and environmental benefits.

But when we ship this type of corn in U.S. AID (Agency for International Development) to help undernourished and hungry people, it gets to be a political football. In Zimbabwe, recently, the president refused to accept this kind of food for his starving people.

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